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What Strategies do Desk-Based Workers Choose to Reduce Their Musculoskeletal Discomfort in Their Lower Backs? 

BeUpstanding Stories

Are you a desk-worker struggling to alleviate your lower back pain? If yes, you are part of a growing movement of workers looking for ways to relieve musculoskeletal discomfort. In this article, we will explore evidence from the BeUpstanding program, highlighting the strategies that desk-based workers use to prevent or manage their discomfort in their lower backs. The risks of prolonged sitting in the workplace Sitting for long, unbroken periods has been shown to be detrimental to overall health, including an increased risk of premature mortality and chronic health problems. For Australians, this is especially concerning, as approximately 60% of their total daily sitting time is accumulated in the workplace. Office workers, in particular, spend anywhere from 180 to 300 minutes seated at their desks each day, often with very little postural variation. These extended periods of sitting, without regular movement or postural changes, can be linked with musculoskeletal discomfort. Since the average Australian spends roughly 45 years in the workforce, the impact of desk-based work on musculoskeletal health is a growing concern—especially when it comes to the lower back. 4 out of 5 Australians will experience lower back pain sometime in their life. Lower back problems are incredibly common…

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What strategies work to sit less and move more?

BeUpstanding Stories

What do you do to sit less and move more? Do you fill up your water bottle regularly? Take a stretching break? Have lunch away from your computer? As part of the BeUpstanding program, staff are asked to indicate the extent to which they took part in a range of 10 sit less strategies and 11 move more strategies in the past month, with response options ranging from never to nearly always/always. Staff could also respond not applicable, with the list of 21 strategies informed by our previous research. Dr Sam Stephens from the BeUpstanding team recently presented on some of the findings from this strategy data and how it related to behaviour change at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity (ASPA) Conference in Wellington, New Zealand. She was able to show that BeUpstanding strategies genuinely do help staff to sit less and move more. What was found to be of particular benefit was: doing a wide range of strategies performing strategies regularly, and choosing highly effective strategies, with some strategies really punching above their weight! In her presentation, Dr Stephens showcased the popularity of each strategy against its effectiveness at helping staff to sit less and move more.…

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Turning that ‘why’ into ACTION

Key resources

If you had a look at our previous post about Finding Your ‘Why’ for reducing your sedentary time at work, you will have seen a bunch of questions asking you about why this change is important to you. In this blog, we’re picking up from that last question – what comes next? ­– and helping you to move from contemplating the ‘why’, to seeing your goals in action. We’ll do this by filling the G.A.P. – using Goal setting, Action planning and Progress evaluation. We have applied some research on goal-setting (explained here) to provide you with some questions that follow this framework. GOAL SETTING The focus here is on identifying where you are now and where you want to be. If there is a gap there, we’re working out what needs to happen to help bridge that gap. Think about where you’re at right now with your sedentary time at work. How do you feel when you think about your current physical activity at work? Next, think about where you want to be with your sedentary time at work. How would you like your physical activity to look throughout your workday? Is there a difference or a gap between where your…

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Optimising working from home – for you and your employer

Latest evidence

Easy traps to fall into Working from home (WFH) became a necessity during the covid pandemic and has persisted since, being the preferred option for many. Previous research on the effects of work relocation to the home environment has demonstrated an increase in sitting time and reduced physical activity for WFH workers1. WFH workers spend more time sedentary, with more bouts of sedentary behaviour (SB) >30 mins per day, and less steps/day than in-office employees2. It is well established that high levels of SB are associated with increased rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and all-cause mortality, as well mental health conditions like depression and anxiety3. Sedentary behaviour, and the mental health effects associated, both indirectly and directly reduce work performance and employee productivity3. Where does BeUpstanding come in? Programs like BeUpstanding aim to support workers to be less sedentary and increase their movement through raising awareness and creating a culture where these behaviours are the norm. Research indicates that for desk-based workplaces, approximately 75% of the working day is spent sitting2. For many, office work constitutes a significant portion of their week, this accumulates to a lot of sedentary time. Studies like the Stand More AT (SMArT) Work…

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Why a trip to the park may be your new best friend

Latest evidence

It’s spring-time in Australia, which means more time outdoors. More picnics, more sunset walks, more swooping magpies… Despite the need for anti-histamines and straw-riddled helmets, spring in Australia offers warmth, greenery and beauty that sometimes gets lost among the long winter months of the southern states. So, what if we told you that these green environments not only offer us a pleasing scenery, but also offer a green light for our mental health and wellbeing? Research has suggested that exercise in outdoor green environments has a more positive effect on our mental health than exercising in outdoor urban environments, like a city or town. In fact, time spent in nature, even without the exercise can do us some good. One study found that those who spent over 120 minutes of their week in nature had consistently greater levels of health and wellbeing than those spending under 120 minutes of their week in nature. And this applied across multiple frequencies – whether that be spread out across the week or 120 minutes all at once. It really wasn’t a case of “more is more”, because the benefits peaked around the 120 minute mark, before starting to drop off again. This brings…

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3 Tips from a Health Coach to Staying Active and Healthy when Working From Home

Bite size facts

One of the biggest problems from working at home can be inactivity. There’s no walking to get a cup of coffee, visiting a nearby colleague, taking the stairs to the bathroom or those incidental types of activity that come from being in a workplace with people and areas spread out. Everything is within easy reach at home. Couple that with a busy workload and this can mean sitting for as long as possible until the task is done. Suddenly hours have gone by and we’re still sitting hunched over the desk. Remaining in one posture for hours at a time can affect the muscles in your back, neck, hip flexors, hamstrings and calves. Excessive sitting can affect your metabolism, increase blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Staying active when working from home may seem easy. Without the daily commute and perhaps having more flexibility in your working hours, surely being at home affords you more time to spend on exercise? Whilst this may be true in theory, we may quickly fall into routines that do not prioritise healthy activity and the boundaries between work and personal life become blurred. The best…

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An Exercise Regimen Everyone Can Squeeze In

Latest evidence

The following article was written by Emmanuel Stamatakis and published in The Conversation on the 21st February 2019. Have you recently carried heavy shopping bags up a few flights of stairs? Or run the last 100 metres to the station to catch your train? If you have, you may have unknowingly been doing a style of exercise called high-intensity incidental physical activity. Our paper, published today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, shows this type of regular, incidental activity that gets you huffing and puffing is likely to produce health benefits, even if you do it in 30-second bursts, spread over the day. In fact, incorporating more high intensity activity into our daily routines – whether that’s by vacuuming the carpet with vigour or walking uphill to buy your lunch – could be the key to helping all of us get some high quality exercise each day. And that includes people who are overweight and unfit. What is high intensity exercise? Until recently, most health authorities prescribed activity lasting for at least ten continuous minutes, although there was no credible scientific evidence behind this. This recommendation was recently refuted by the 2018 US Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Report. The new…

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“Research commercialisation: Tips for starting your journey”

The Evidence

The following article, written by Matt Frith – one of our BeUpstanding™ team members, and managing director and founder of Kin8 – was originally published in The Research Whisperer on May 29, 2018. Research commercialisation can be daunting, but in a landscape of dwindling government funding and ever-shifting technological and commercial realities, it can be a powerful way to bring new ideas and change into the world. For researchers and academics, however, the businesses, people and language can be so different that it’s almost alien. The way a researcher or academic thinks, the goals they have to achieve in their career, are very different to those of a corporate department’s director or CEO. So, how do you begin to feel comfortable exploring the world of research commercialisation? For this post, we’ve put together some detailed tips, based on our experience working with both researchers and corporate partners. The biggest barriers are often emotional, so these tips are designed to get you both thinking and feeling, along with actions, to start your path forward. You have value. We can tell you right now that someone in the corporate sector values what you are doing and what you have. You have intellectual property, processes, team members,…

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Health experts recommend standing up at desk….

Uncategorised

This post from satirical site the Onion is an “oldie” but a goodie (first published 02/06/15). Health experts recommend standing up at desk, leaving office, never coming back ROCHESTER, MN—In an effort to help working individuals improve their fitness and well-being, experts at the Mayo Clinic issued a new set of health guidelines Thursday recommending that Americans stand up at their desk, leave their office, and never return. “Many Americans spend a minimum of eight hours per day sitting in an office, but we observed significant physical and mental health benefits in subjects after just one instance of standing up, walking out the door, and never coming back to their place of work again,” said researcher Claudine Sparks, who explained that those who implemented the practice in their lives reported an improvement in mood and reduced stress that lasted for the remainder of the day, and which appeared to persist even into subsequent weeks. “We encourage Americans to experiment with stretching their legs by strolling across their office and leaving all their responsibilities behind forever just one time to see how much better they feel. People tend to become more productive, motivated, and happy almost immediately. We found that you can also…

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